Linda H wrote:
> ant wrote:
>
>
>> Hmm. That's interesting. Does normal icing sugar contain wheat or
>> corn starch?
>
>
> Yes, wheat starch. I got that for when I made a birthday cake for a
> child with Coeliac disease.

Yes, a relative has that, and we keep making discoveries like this one! So,
the stuff flogged in the supermarket as just normal old icing sugar has
wheat? (she's allergic to corn, too, which is a nuisence).

>Soft Icing Mixture (used for a smoother,
> less firm setting icing) is good because it is blended with wheat
> starch but you can't use that for gluten intolerant people. You
> could use pure icing sugar for a gluten free icing if you wanted but
> that would have resulted in a harder 'finish' than I wanted for this
> particular cake. (I get a lot of celebration cake making requests.)
>
>
>> I also call that "coffee sugar" although its real name is raw sugar.
>> How do you usually use that in cooking?
>
>
> I think I've probably only used it a couple of times in/on something
> cooked (I think it was on the top of a particular sort of muffins that
> when sprinkled on top, along with crushed walnuts or hazelnut meal
> prior to baking caramelises well in high temps yet retaining a certain
> 'bite/crunch') but my hubby seems to prefer raw sugar in his coffee so
> we always have it. Raw sugar is sometimes called for in certain
> biscuits that have less processed items such as oatmeal and wholemeal
> flours. It has a slightly lighter 'honey' flavour than Demerara and
> is lighter/nicer when mixed into crumbled toppings for apple based
> desserts not being quite as strong.

That makes a lot of sense... crumbled with nuts and other coarse mixtures.

>
> Strangely enough with all my damn sugars I don't eat much of it myself
> as I find sugars too addictive for me.
>
> Demerara (to me) has too much of a mollasses flavour for coffee but
> many people like it. You can also get raw caster sugar but in the
> things I use caster sugar in, raw would be slightly too deep in colour for
> what I want so I don't buy that one.
>
> CSR actually make "Coffee Sugar" (that has a light syrup coating to
> the grains with an ever so subtle coffee flavour to it) besides their
> "Demerara" but I can hardly tell the difference so I usually get
> whichever one of those two my hand reaches first on the supermarket
> shelf.

flavoured sugar in coffee, that's a bit much. Like those silly syrups.


>> Love the flavour of brown sugar, marvellous for slices. Made a
>> wonderful orange syrup with it, too. Butter, squeezed oranges, and
>> brown sugar.
>
>
> Yes you're quite right about the slices and I always use it for things
> that need a deep flavour and depth of colour such as Anzacs, fruit
> cakes and deep spicy cakes, muffins, buns. Great for caramel sauces
> and things.

It just adds that lovely flavour, not just sweetness.

My husband uses brown sugar in some sort of marinade sauce
> thing for he mixes with Sake and Japanese Soy and something else for
> abalone. I wouldn't know what that's like cos I don't like abalone. He
> uses the light brown sugar in some stir fry dishes and palm sugar
> in some of his (Austral)Asian cooking.

I had a block of very dark brown palm sugar in the fridge for years, very
useful stuff, and for some asian things it was perfect. There was an
Indonesian dry stir fried thing with thin strips of beef, soy, palm sugar,
tamarind, dried chilli and garlic. Without the palm sugar it just wasn't as
good.


--
ant